Managers of commercial establishments, such as retail stores, shopping malls, transportation centers and the like, responsible for maximizing sales of products and services, are well aware that the layout of their facilities has a substantial impact on sales volume. To evaluate this impact, it is necessary to gather data characterizing the flow of customer traffic into and within the facility. This data will reveal the locations where customers are present more frequently (“hot spots”) and those where customer traffic is lighter (“cold spots”). With this information, it is possible for the manager to make changes in features that affect accessibility, lighting, fixture space, product placement, and the like that will improve product exposure and reduce the number and/or size of cold spots.
The tracking data, along with product placement data are also important to distributors of products sold in commercial establishments. This information enables them to evaluate whether their products are receiving sufficient attention in a retail store, so that the cost of shelf space is justified. It also enables them to assess whether they should request shelf space for their products in a different location in the store.
Traditionally such traffic flow studies have been conducted manually. One or more of the manager's employees would record the movements of customers within the facility on a sheet representing its layout. The accumulated data would then be reviewed by the manager. Clearly, this is a labor-intensive way of gathering such data. It is also potentially annoying to customers if the employees tracking them are not very discrete.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,463,143, titled “Methods and Systems for Gathering Market Research Data Within Commercial Establishments,” assigned to the assignee of the present application and hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses cost effective and potentially less annoying techniques for gathering market research data concerning the presence and movements of customers in commercial establishments and elsewhere. These techniques employ one or more wireless transmitters placed near or within such commercial establishments. It is often necessary to map the identities or other relevant data of the transmitters to their locations to be able to determine the presence and movements of customers participating in such market research studies.
A further useful application of wireless transmitters in market research is in gathering data indicating exposure of panelists to billboards, posters and other types of media displays providing advertisements or other promotional information. The wireless transmitters are placed in proximity to the media displays to transmit a location signal which is received by a portable monitor carried by a panelist to indicate the panelist's exposure to the media display.
In order to carry out such marketing studies, it is often necessary to map the identities or other relevant data of the various wireless transmitters to their locations and/or to the media display, product display, product or other object of interest. It is desirable, therefore, to provide setup methods, devices and systems for the transmitters that efficiently record their locations or other key data in a database from which suitable reports may be produced, using a minimum amount of effort and expense.